IDBWM 22

Chapter 22

The underground prison of the Imperial Palace.

Count Seighton’s hands clutched the cold iron bars, trembling uncontrollably with rage and fear.

‘Me… charged with treason?!’

Inside, the count screamed as if coughing up blood.

‘I can’t die like this too! I refuse to die a dog’s death like my sister and nephews did!’

Decades ago, he had a beautiful younger sister who married into the Grand Ducal House of Kaiser.

She had held a magnificent wedding with the former Grand Duke and given birth to three dazzling golden-haired children who resembled her perfectly.

His sister, along with the three children who inherited her brilliant blond hair, had lived happily.

Even though it was during the gradual decline of the thousand-year-old Kaiser family’s prestige and fortune.

His sister had always smiled as though she was content.

But that peace did not last long.

Not long afterward, the entire grand ducal family—including his sister—was brutally murdered.

“Ha… hahaha…!”

Count Seighton burst into manic laughter.

“You think I’ll die pointlessly in a place like this?!”

He would never die so easily.

If he endured just a little longer in this prison, the collateral branch alliance would surely come up with a way to save him.

“Count Seighton.”

At that moment, a low voice called out to him from beyond the darkness of the cell.

Who is it?

A man wearing a deeply hooded robe stood motionless beyond the bars.

Count Seighton had not sensed his presence at all until the man stood right before him.

Come to think of it, it was strange. Since when?

The guards and gatekeepers assigned to this section had vanished without a sound.

“Those above have shown you special mercy.”

Without giving the count time to react, the robed man carried out his task.

Clang!

A silver dagger with a gleaming blade slipped through the bars and landed at the count’s feet.

“Die honorably by your own hand, Count.”

Count Seighton realized immediately.

‘Those traitorous bastards! Damn them all!’

The collateral branch alliance he had trusted so completely.

Those cowardly bastards…

Before their own involvement could be exposed, they intended to silence him first!

“I refuse to die like this!”

“If that is your choice, I was ordered to finish things cleanly myself, even if blood must be spilled.”

“W-what…?”

“So stop disgracing yourself and slit your throat honorably.”

As the man reached for the dagger, the count staggered backward.

Did they think the Seighton family, with its centuries of history, would collapse just like this?

“Please. Get me out of here right now! If you release me… I—I have a sure way to completely destroy Declan Kaiser, that monster bastard!”

The robed man, who had been about to draw the blade, paused.

Beyond the hidden face, faint interest seemed to flicker.

“You know the Seighton family’s sacred relic? Do you know what power it possesses?”

Realizing he had caught the other man’s attention, Count Seighton spoke more urgently.

“It has the power to reveal a person’s most fatal weakness.”

A sinister smile spread across the count’s lips.

“Don’t you want to know the weakness of that arrogant Declan Kaiser?”

At those words, the robed man visibly reacted.

“Where is this sacred relic of the great Seighton family?”

“I can tell you where it’s hidden, but unless I—the family head—handle it myself, it absolutely cannot be used.”

Though his expression remained hidden beneath the robe, the count could practically sense the annoyance radiating from him.

‘How dare some lowborn assassin look down on a count like me?’

Rage burned inside him, but survival came first.

“Get me out of here immediately!”

The count glared directly at the man as if issuing an order, biting down hard enough on his lips to draw blood.

“If you place the Seighton relic in my hands, I will gladly drag out that bastard’s weakest point and tear it to shreds.”

Clank.

The heavy prison door opened.

Count Seighton escaped the dungeon safely.

He immediately rushed toward the secret place where he had hidden the family’s ultimate relic.

To think that secretly moving the sacred relic in advance—just in case the rebellion failed—would become such a godsend.

“Huff… huff…”

After riding like a madman, he arrived at an old mansion hidden on the outskirts of the capital.

Since the estate had been purchased under another identity, there was little risk of discovery for the time being.

Count Seighton hurried into a hidden chamber.

There, a golden vessel rested quietly.

Inside was still water.

‘Did they really think I’d die this meaninglessly? Not a chance!’

This was the Seighton family’s sacred relic.

The Water of Truth, which reflected a target’s most fatal weakness upon its surface.

However, such overwhelming power came at the cost of the user’s lifespan.

And Count Seighton was not a perfectly compatible bearer of the relic.

Which meant the relic would greedily consume far more of his life in exchange for revealing the truth.

He had intended to reserve it as his final—truly final—trump card.

Yet things had already come to this.

‘I will survive this crisis no matter what and personally sever the head of that bastard Declan Kaiser!’

Even if it devoured half his remaining lifespan—or more—he had to see the answer with his own eyes.

It was his only path to survival.

“Declan Kaiser’s weakness! Reveal it before me at once!”

At that moment, strange colors began spreading across the previously calm surface of the water.

Finally, the ripples ceased, and a single image formed perfectly.

For a long moment, Count Seighton stared blankly at the water’s surface.

The vague image pierced through the fog of memory, stirring a distant recollection.

“…Impossible.”

Even widening his eyes in disbelief, he could not accept it.

Declan’s weakness was merely… this?

“So, what did you see?”

Flinch.

At the voice suddenly sounding close behind him, Count Seighton spun around.

The robed man stood there, waiting for his answer.

“It was…”

The corners of the count’s lips curled upward.

The relic never lied.

Which meant Declan Kaiser could be destroyed!

“It’s something utterly trivial. That man’s weakness is only something like—!”

At that instant, the man slowly lowered his hood.

From the darkness emerged jet-black hair and blood-red eyes.

The triumphant expression on the count’s face froze grotesquely.

“I’ve always wondered what my weakness was too. Thanks to you, I learned it rather easily.”

“D-Declan Kaiser! H-how are you—!”

Count Seighton’s jaw trembled violently in shock.

He had never imagined it. The voice beneath the robe had been completely different!

Only then did the count notice the relic in Declan’s hand.

A low-grade relic capable of altering one’s voice.

‘A cheap trick… and I fell for it!’

Instinctively, he twisted around to flee, but it was already too late.

A cold flash of steel cut through the air, tracing a terrifyingly precise arc that cruelly slashed the back of his knees.

“GAAAAAH!”

A horrifying scream tore through the narrow underground chamber.

He collapsed with a desperate shriek as hot blood soaked his legs.

Twisting in agony, he looked up at Declan, who gazed down at him with a lazy expression.

‘That bastard… he lured me here just to learn his own weakness!’

“D-Declan! You’re too young to understand. The power that old emperor gives you may feel sweet now, but you’ll be discarded without mercy too!”

“…”

“Just like your father and my sister! Just like your siblings! In the end, you’ll also be hunted down and torn apart!”

He could not die like this.

“You stupid hunting dog bastard, I’m not the one you should be sinking your teeth into!”

Count Seighton screamed desperately, trying to shake Declan in any way possible.

“Declan! Who do you think brutally murdered my sister and nephews?! Who turned the thousand-year-old grand ducal house into a sea of blood?! If you have any brains at all, think carefully!”

By the time his throat felt torn raw from shouting—

Declan, who had been silently looking down at the raging count, finally spoke in a bored voice.

“It was me.”